Chicken Lips

Chicken Lips followed up their Body Music mix for NRK just five months after its release with an entry in !K7's popular mix-disc series. In comparison, DJ-Kicks is more of a selector-style disc, with a number of abrupt transitions -- it doesn't have the liquid-smooth flow that runs throughout much of its predecessor. Selection-wise, it's practically the inverse, with deep crate digging through the '70s and '80s -- instead of recent-vintage left-field house -- as the primary focus; and out of the handful of post-'80s selections that appear, most were put together by the selectors themselves. Seasoned DJs and dance-music geeks will be the only ones familiar with most of the inclusions, and the ageless tracks that will be familiar to many others -- Jimmy Spicer's "The Bubble Bunch," George Duke's "Brazilian Love Affair" -- haven't exactly been run into the ground. While the jarring nature of some of the track switch-ups is a minor nuisance on a couple occasions, there's plenty of evidence that the set was thought out with a good deal of care and imagination. For instance, how many DJ teams would think to bridge the nocturnal electro-disco of the Paul Simpson Connection's "Treat Me" and the clunky, charmingly underproduced machine-drum pop of Tik n Tok's "Crisis" with 20 seconds of Rhythm & Sound's "Music a Fe Rule"? Another testament to the group's daring approach to DJing is the way they're able to lead into the George Duke track with -- get this -- the Raincoats. Granted, the Raincoats track that's used is Dennis Bovell's dub mix of "Animal Rhapsody," but it's still impressive that those two artists are put back-to-back in a natural, not-just-for-eclecticism's-sake sense. Rare productions from underground legends Arthur Russell and Greg Carmichael only add to the disc's allure. A pair of fine, albeit very different, mixes in one year -- well done, Chicken Lips. ~ Andy Kellman, All Music Guide